To Market, To Market - Shop with the locals and eat eat eat at Hatikva Market!

When wandering around Hatikva Market (Shuk Hatikva) it is amazing that you start to take on a degustation tasting menu of the history of the waves of immigration to Israel through the years.

Hatikva means hope (also the name of the national anthem), and it was on this site in the 1850's that Clorinda Minor an American Evangelical founded a small settlement called Mount Hope. Unfortunately due to malaria and attacks by bedouins this dream was abandoned by its founders including the grandfather of John Steinbeck.

The next immigrants to the area were the Yemenites. in 1949, 50 000 Yemenites were rescued to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet and with them came Yemenite pita known as Saluf, a yemenite bread known as lahoh that is kind of like a pancake eaten with crushed tomatoes and hilbe (fenugreek paste).

The next were the Jews of Iraq who were rescued in Operation Ezra and Nehemia. They brought with them many recipes for selling ready made food like kube - round semolina balls filled with meat and deep fried. They also brought with them the concept of a delicatessen.

Next we have Persian Jews, when wandering the streets here you can find the drink "Fluda" which is a very sweet crushed ice drink with citrus fruit flavours and rice noodles mixed in giving in an interesting texture and even more interesting crunch!

The Bukharan Jews come from the area of the "stans" and they also bring with them the traditions of lepyoshke - Bhukharan bread cooked in a piping hot oven sticking to the walls a round bread with a depression in the middle. Don't miss the Samse however, little pockets of pastry filled with meat kind of like a meat pie, or the closest you will get to a meat pie in Israel.

There are also a few hipster cafe's popping up in the area like haKubiya and Hodaya.

Before you venture back towards Tel Aviv, do not leave without sampling the Souborek from Delik's and be transported straight to Istanbul. Souborek is made using pastry that has been dipped into hot water which makes it almost like eating lasagne with a thin layer of spinach it is melt in your mouth.

All the flavours of Hatikva market make you feel like home.